A liquid-crystal-driving method is a method of moving liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal layer sandwiched by a pair of substrates, by generating an electric field between electrodes, thereby changing the optical characteristic of the liquid crystal layer and making light pass or not pass through a liquid crystal panel. Accordingly, an on state and an off state can be created.
By such liquid-crystal-driving, liquid crystal display devices of various modes are provided in various usages while advantages such as thinness, lightness, and lower power consumption are utilized. For example, various driving methods are devised and practically used in displays or the like of a personal computer, a television, an in-vehicle device such as a car navigation, and a display of a portable information terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal.
For a liquid crystal display device, various display methods (display modes) are being developed depending on the characteristic of liquid crystals, electrode disposition, substrate design, and the like. Display modes widely used in recent years are, broadly, a vertical alignment (VA) mode in which liquid crystal molecules having negative anisotropy of dielectric constant are aligned vertically to the substrate surface, an in-plane switching (IPS) mode of making liquid crystal molecules having positive or negative anisotropy of dielectric constant aligned to be horizontal to the substrate surface and applying transverse electric field, a fringe field switching (FFS), and the like. In those display modes, some liquid-crystal-driving methods are proposed.
For example, as a liquid crystal display device of the FFS driving method, a thin film transistor-type liquid crystal display having high response and wide view angle is disclosed, including a first substrate having a first common electrode layer, a second substrate having both a pixel electrode layer and a second common electrode layer, a liquid crystal sandwiched between the first and second substrates, and means which generates an electric field between the first common electrode layer in the first substrate and both the pixel electrode layer and the second common electrode layer in the second substrate to achieve high response with respect to high input data transfer speed and a wide view angle for a viewer (refer to, for example, patent literature 1).
As a liquid crystal device applying a transverse electric field by a plurality of electrodes, a liquid crystal display is disclosed, including a liquid crystal layer made of liquid crystal having positive anisotropy of dielectric constant, which is sandwiched between a pair of substrates disposed so as to face each other, in which first and second substrates constructing the pair of substrates are provided with electrodes opposed to each other over the liquid crystal layer and applying a vertical electric field to the liquid crystal layer, and the second substrate is provided with a plurality of electrodes applying a transverse electric field to the liquid crystal layer (refer to, for example, patent literature 2).